Life is indeed a journey and without our thoughts, that journey could be quite boring. I offer you my perspective on a myriad of topics with a twist of Afrocentrism. Welcome, and may it prompt you to think about something of significance.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The following is written by one of my favorite writers, my very wise husband:

Dear Congress,

Enough is enough. You have had your fun, but this little game of continuing to deceive is becoming tiresome. The economists have good points, but let's cut to the chase here and get the extemporaneous stuff out of the way. You have [just] realized that our economy is in trouble, yes. You have [just] realized that many large financial institutions are not going to survive, yes. You have noted that the demise of these institutions will have dire consequences on the general well-being of the economy, yes. Your answer (solution) to this crisis is to throw a significant amount of taxpayer dollars at it. Go on, admit it. The only point of contention is how many of these ill-fated dollars each of you are willing to have your names adhered to in case this fails. Otherwise each one of you wants to throw money at it and hope it goes away until you are no longer in office.

Let's examine the mechanics of this mess for a moment. The real problem is older than most Americans know. It is more pervasive than you have allowed Americans to understand. My dear Congress, remember when this country had it own factories for the products we consume? What happened to those?Ok....we all know what happened to them, but I need you to think about why it happened. Why did we move our manufacturing capability to other shores? What sane society would get rid of the employment structure its own citizens need to buy the products they produce/need? Never mind, we did it and that's history, but why? What could we fill the income gap with since we became a country that stopped producing products to sell? Good idea! We’ll make money a product itself and sell that, along with various services, for a profit.

Problems right out of the chute. We must grow our economy without pause because we get most of our money from a cartel of big banks that control our money supply. As we all know, we borrow this money (at interest) from the Federal Reserve. [For all you folks that don't quite understand that there is never enough money in existence to cover the interest on the money already created, I can explain that in a sidebar] Take my word for it that the economy has to grow because the money supply has to continually increase in order to cover the interest on the money being borrowed. Since [ALL] our money is "borrowed" into existence, this mechanism is very key to the stability of the entire system.

At this moment, the keener among you should have just noticed a paradox in reasoning. As in the boat example with the apple, the more money that is created, the less it is worth. Even in good times, the system does not hold up to logic and will implode over a period. However, and remember, your solution to the problem at hand is to inject $700b (to start) additional money into a system that is already bloated with overpriced assets. Am I the only one that can see why this will not work? It’s insane! Another paradox for the truly gifted among you is the fact that the Fed has managed this crisis from the beginning. However, it is their lane in the road that includes managing the money supply. The more we have to borrow, the more money they earn as a corporation of banks, yet, they are leading the charge on fixing this problem. The fact that they are encouraging this injection of capital into the system cannot be dismissed. However, we have to borrow that $700b from them and that little detail fails to get mentioned.

So Congress, if you really want to solve this problem, get rid of the Fed.Take the constitution of this country out of the mothballs, dust it off, and get back to your responsibilities stated therein. Otherwise, shut your collective mouths and get ready to preside over the world's newest third world country.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

I just got off the phone with my eldest daughter who is in her first year of college. As we were going through the usual, I asked what she had for lunch. She informed me that she had a peanut butter sandwich and a fruit cup. Of course, I was impressed because her usual lunch consisted of junk food during the past several years of high school. During her senior year, as she was able to go off campus for lunch, she typically ate Burger King, Churches Chicken and Wok Inn spending sometimes up to $9 on just lunch. Meanwhile, I was trying to be good and spend $5 at my cafe at work. I have been trying to get my oldest (who also has an ulcer) to eat healthier and warn her of the weight gain experienced by many during their freshman year. Of course this is hardly applicable these days as kids eat junk on a regular basis. Back when I was in secondary school we all usually ate well rounded meals and obesity was not a problem for kids or adults as it is now. I also stress healthy eating as being overweight is an issue for our ethnicity and our immediate family.

...Now back to the peanut butter and fruit...After she got her car and a job, my dear daughter always would proclaim on the leftover days that she was not eating. She would use her hard earned money to buy junk food or skip dinner all together; she spent a lot on junk food. During any given week, she would spend more than $35 on lunch alone! My lunch checks stopped the moment I noticed that she was spending so much. At that point I realized that she needs to know how it feels to take so much money out of your own pocket. I would warn her about spending so much on food, manicures, clothes, gas, etc. I would tell her that she is actually spending more than me on those things (especially the manicure as I think it is a ridiculous waste of a persons income). I would tell her that she will want all that money back when fall came and she had college expenses. But this was all to no avail. 'I'm a senior and I am going to have fun and buy what I want' would be the general sentiment. She would continue to say, "Since I will be on my own next year, I have to buy these things now while I don't have bills and live at home."

Well, during our conversation tonight, I went on to ask if she went home for lunch as she has classes about 5 minutes from her apartment. She informed me that she brought her lunch with her today to save money and try to eat healthier. WOW! Oprah does not know an AHA moment is until she can experience her own child telling you something like that!!

I am beginning to think (and know) that somewhere behind those rolling eyes, frowns and bored stares during one of our many lectures to our child about being prepared for the future, something actually stuck or perhaps, had to stick. We as parents have always been afraid our children would just be lost after they graduated. We tried to scare them. We tried to encourage them. We tried to inform them and warn them so that things would not be as difficult as it was for us. In an age where kids think of themselves first (and sometimes only) and what their parents are going to give them next, I see a beacon ahead in the darkness. I am starting to think that for some of us, for some of them, life has to happen first before they can change. Like many parents, I had to have one of those children who had to make all the mistakes to learn about what is important. I think she has even said I was right on some things.

In the end, unfortunately, we were right as parents usually are. She now has her own apartment, her own rent, her own electric bill, her own water bill and her own grocery list for which she has to plan and pay!! Our daughter has learned that she does want a clean bedroom, a clean house, money in the bank, gas in the tank and she now wants to study!! She realizes that you have to do chores to have a nice home. And indeed she wants a fabulous place. She knows now that eventually you do get tired of frozen waffles and Poptarts for every meal. She now thinks about how much gas it will take to go somewhere. She now works diligently to set priorities. She has started her journey to becoming her parents and I am loving it!!

So eat up, my darling...and enjoy those leftovers that you now eat all the time!!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

As I peruse the myriad of news sites, blogs and commentaries, I have to wonder if Americans are as uninformed as it seems. I have to wonder why no one bothers to mention that the news media that are accusing McCain of lying are the same media outlets that play these lies over and over again 'reporting' that they are in fact lies. Are they that foolish to not realize that playing these little snippets of soundbites only reinforces the very ideas that they are 'reporting' to be false. Does it really help Obama to replay McCain ads that are lies and negative just for the sake of pointing out the untruths? Or...is there something else going on here?

I rarely see an Obama ad in the news. For the past month or so the media has been reporting on McCain and now McCain & Palin. There was a time when all candidates were in the news but it seems as if once Clinton was gone and Obama was the apparent winner, news disappeared. I have to wonder if this is not an effort to stifel Obama's efforts and pump up McCain. Do we really need to hear over and over about the lipsticked pig? Of what purpose is continuing to report this if it is not to make sure as many people as possible actually begin to believe that Obama called Palin a pig. Of course we all know that he is far too intelligent and cultured to ever do such a thing. I never noticed the media mentioning when McCain does not wear a flag pin; where is the criticism when McCain belittled Clinton? Where was the media when the extremely wealthy McCains were calling Obama an Elitist? Did he mean to say that Obama is more intelligent and worked harder? If that isn't an attempt to put lipstick on a pig, I don't know what is!!

And a few words on the Clintons. It's over. Your time has passed for now so give it up. I see your true colors...they shone through the past couple months. You are sore loosers and you are more interested in yourselves than the Democratic Party. To the media that reported the DNC: your reporting was more about the Clintons than Obama and the actual Convention.

Here's my suggestion for Obama: start fighting hard and trump the garbage ads by good ones of your own because the point is to win. Find a way to get back into the medias radar in a positive way. Come to TX and offer help for the hurricane victims. You must be willing to be a participant in the game with the media if you want to win! Take back your 'rockstar' persona, make big events happen because Americans are shallow and sometimes you have to sink a little lower than you want.

I could go on and on but I have to season the chicken for dinner. A mother's job is never finished...

Coming up sometime in the future: America's strange attatchment to unintelligent life.

Words to Remember...

"Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights." President Barack H. Obama